Right To Food ZineRight To Food Zine

The Right to Food Zine’s mission is to promote the human right to food that is healthy, nutritious, affordable, and presented with dignity. Our voices reflect the diversity that is the Downtown Eastside. Our articles, research, and recipes speak to DTES residents, social justice groups, and beyond. We inform our readers, while fostering the desire to know more and to become more engaged. As part of the DTES community, we strive to be a tool for community-building.

MANDATE

Promoting the Human Right to Healthy Affordable Food

Right To Food ZineRight To Food Zine

ISSUE 9 - SUMMER/AUTUMN 2014

Reconnect

Food Not Bombs

Camp Out!

Our Right to Food

Healing Hungry Souls

For My Mother

Frugal Organic Eating

Welcome to the Summer/Autumn 2014 issue of the Right to Food Zine.

I dedicate this issue to my mother, Frances Shaffer, who passed away while this issue was being completed. Kim reports after visiting Vancouver’s recent Tent City at Oppenheimer Park and the Portland Dignity Village.

Hendrik, our permaculture expert, advises us about summer gardening, cheap and nutritious food at Farmers Markets, and much else. I interview two young American housing and food justice activists about their Food Not Bombs

organization and living poor in their home city of Indianapolis. I also interview Lorraine and Lauren at Strathcona Food Services. Harreson’s story about Maria offers many money-saving suggestions for shopping, menus, and recycling for living frugally and organically. Our Nuba contributor Marco describes the personal effects of the restaurant’s healthy approach to food. We’re grateful to have the front cover art of Jeremy Wong, a new addition to our creative team. And we are always glad to have the art and poetry of Janice.

May this issue brighten your days and dazzle your spirits.

Stan Shaffer, publisher and editor

Hendrick

Kim

The Zine Team

Marco

Lance

Jeremy

Janice

Harreson

DonnaArtwork by Janice

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the original authors and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House.

Summer/Autumn 2014

For My Mother ...................................................................................... 2Camp Out To End Homelessness ....................................................... 3Reconnect With Nature ....................................................................... 6Our Right To Nutritious Food ............................................................ 7Food Not Bombs ................................................................................... 9Recipe: Spanish Omelette .................................................................. 11Planting Seeds ..................................................................................... 11Healing Hungry Souls ........................................................................ 12Nuba Lessons ...................................................................................... 14Frugal Organic Eating ........................................................................ 15DTES NH Upcoming Events ............................................................ 20

Right To Food Zineis published four times a year.

Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, 573 East Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, V6A 1P9

http://www.rtfzine.org

Publisher and Editor • Stan Shaffer

Front and Back Cover Artist • Jeremy Wong

Inner Back Cover Artist • Janice Jacinto

Designer and Editorial Consultant • Harreson Sito

Photographer • Harreson Sito

CONTRIBUTORSHendrik Beune, Janice Jacinto, Kim Del Valle Garcia, Maria Lopez,

Stan Shaffer, Harreson Sito, Marco Torres, Carol White

2 Right to Food Zine 09 - Summer/Autumn 2014

For My Motherby Stan Shaffer

Frances Shaffer August 16, 1910 - July 17, 2014

This issue is dedicated to my mother, Frances Shaffer, who died just one month shy of her

104th birthday. She was born in London, England, travelled to America as an infant, and lived in many cities in the US and Canada, most prominently Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and, finally, Burnaby. She had remarkably good health her whole life, until recently when she fell, broke her hip, and died three months later in Burnaby General Hospital.

She was known for her sharpness of mind, her quick wit, and her remarkable abilities in games and puzzles of all sorts—cryptic crosswords, bridge and Scrabble. She read 3-4 books a week, and when she moved to Burnaby prior to her 100th birthday, I had the pleasure of going to the library every week to get her new books. Her self-deprecating sense of humour remained even in the hospital: about being bed-ridden, she said, “Lying in bed all day is not for sissies”; she needed to reposition herself to “give my backside a little holiday now and then”; and modest about her impending 104th birthday, she announced, “I’m not trying to set a record.”

As a woman of her times, she was dedicated to her role as a home maker who raised her children and cooked healthy, delicious meals. I’m the eldest of my three siblings: Rhea (Toronto), Dorothy (Burnaby), and Jayeson (Port Coquitlam). My father could boil water and make toast but not much more, and was devoted to her soups. Following in my dad’s footsteps, and because of our co-dependence on her cooking, I didn’t learn to make my own food until it was forced upon me when I left home for college at age 19.

My brother Jayeson recalls that his favorite meal was roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, while mine was lamb roast, whose leftovers became Shepard’s Pie, a steaming dish of chopped lamb topped with mashed potatoes. Although she wasn’t religious, our background is Jewish and she was adept at preparing many Jewish dishes such as the Friday evening chicken, holiday brisket, and mandel bread cookies (Jewish biscotti), as well as her famous chocolate ice box cake (actually a pudding). My sister Dorothy remembers her golden potato latkes, a special dish for the Jewish Christmas, Hanukkah, which is served with sour cream and apple sauce. Mom was a welcoming hostess and treated everyone as guests in her home. She was an engaging conversationalist who enjoyed discussing current events, and would often ask, “What’s new?”

Among the many values I absorbed from her, fairness and equality to all people were paramount. She and my father practiced social justice and community service daily, and I feel I’m following in their footsteps by editing the DTES NH Right To Food Zine.

Rest in peace, mom. Z

3Right to Food Zine 09 - Summer/Autumn 2014

Camp Out To End Homelessnessby Kim Del Valle Garcia

Feeling far too similar to Santa for my liking, I’m walking down Hastings with a garbage sack full of

plums over a shoulder and a Ziploc bag bulging with still warm spaghetti in one hand. Today I’m on my way to deposit my “gifts” to the newly formed tent city in Oppenheimer Park.

Located in the heart of “Little Tokyo,” this park has a sordid history of politics and protests. In 1938 the park was one of the sites of Vancouver’s infamous Bloody Sunday and in 1941 the Asahi baseball league, comprised of Japanese-Canadians, was forced to play their final game due to the eviction of much of the community into internment camps.

Currently the park is the site of a tent city of about 40 campers occupying the park to protest the sorry state of homelessness in Vancouver. Despite Mayor Gregor Robertson’s promise to end street homelessness by 2015, data released in April shows Vancouver now has the largest homelessness population in the city’s history with a total of 1,798 people identified as homeless, 538 living on the street, 1,136 in shelters and 124 of no fixed address.

I approach the tent city and am warmly greeted by the campers. The spaghetti, which has been shaken into a warm mush, disappears from my hands quickly and I find a spot to dump the plums.

Surveying the camp I notice about a dozen tents and an imposing structure covered in cedar boughs marking the

sweat lodge and a sacred fire, which is kept burning 24-7.

This encampment causes the dismay of City Council, which has issued a series of eviction notices citing bylaws that prohibit sleeping in parks and erecting structures on public property. In an official statement, the city stated that camping in parks is not allowed and the presence of tents and other structures is impeding other residents’ enjoyment of the space. Although some campers do have a place to live off the streets, life in the park is preferable. Vancouver houses its homeless in “rundown, unsafe hotel rooms,” according to Brody Williams of the Haida Nation, one of the organizers. Williams also mentions how living in the park provides a level of freedom not possible in Social Housing where residents often have strict guest policies and harm reduction rules.

Although many question the effectiveness of this type of tent city demonstration, I look to a recent trip to Portland’s Dignity Village to provide evidence for its success.

Sandwiched between the city of Portland’s compost collection yard and the Columbia River Correctional Institution, Dignity Village occupies a 2 acre swath of concrete dotted with a number of tiny

“As I gander at the village, it is obvious that there has been much work put into the project. But how does a rag-tag gang of once homeless create such a project?


homes, gardens, communal spaces, a greenhouse and a workshop. The city of Portland designated Dignity Village as a “Transitional Housing Campground.”

The Village needed a larger, rodent-free compost pile to store the camp’s surplus of food scraps. A few volunteers from all over the US and myself were eager to prove that we were not just here to ogle the residents in a shameless go at “poor-ism,” so we had taken it upon ourselves to clear the way for construction. Baking on the pavement in a space that would normally hold 2 or 3 vehicles was a scattering of little garden boxes, filled with veggies, herbs and flowers. It was a smoking hot spring day that I found myself digging in the raised garden beds.

Standing up, I was overcome with the surreal scene around me. There are a number of terms to describe what I was looking at: campground, dysfunctional hippie commune, or ghetto were a few that came to mind. But the folks who call it home prefer to use the label “intentional community”.

The Village is a homeless city that is self-sustaining and self-governed where up to 60 residents work as a village to thrive with minimal help from the government or any outside sources. There are only

two requirements to become a resident:

1) You have to be over 18 and, 2) You have to be homeless.

Once you’re in, you are provided with a tiny 10 foot by 10 foot home outfitted with the bare necessities. No electricity or running water is available in the houses, but shower facilities are provided by harnessing rainwater, the site has a large communal kitchen where many can share a meal in the winter months, and the homes are heated by donated propane heaters.

As I gander at the village it is obvious that there has been much work put into the project, but how does a rag-tag gang of once homeless create such a project?

To answer my question I sought out one of the organizers, Mitch, who had two words for me: “civil disobedience”. According to Mitch the Village found its roots in 2000 as a migrating tent city, when a group of 8 homeless banned together for protection while living in the streets. The group was “drinking beer or what, got a hair and decided to occupy land.” The small group began growing in size while occupying city land in what they dubbed “Camp Dignity.”


Almost immediately the police began confronting the camp for unlicensed use of park land, forcing the group to load up their belongings in shopping carts as they were “moved” on from site to site.

Eventually gaining extensive media coverage, Camp Dignity’s “shopping cart parades” gained a level of fame until the most well-known parade took place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2001 which included 35 shopping carts and the spectacle of armed policemen herding the group along.

With support for Camp Dignity growing, the Portland City Council eventually succumbed, granting the group access to the 2 acre parcel of land that has grown into the community that I found myself digging in on that hot spring day. Dignity Village now enjoys a small sense of permanency having just signed a 3-year lease with the City of Portland, but the residents fear that this inkling of security will also bring with it the complacency that could prove to be its downfall. Continually Dignity Village has to fight complaints against the way they handle addiction and pressures to re-develop the land into an expanded compost heap for one of Portland’s neighbours,

Gresham, but due to its “out of sight, out of mind” location the camp has difficulty gaining the same level of support as it had in 2001 leaving its future uncertain.

After surviving my late teens and early twenties in a housing “rich” city such as Vancouver, I was no stranger to alternative housing situations: collective houses, cob communes, farming cooperatives, urban trailer parks—all with the intention of community and affordability, but Portland’s Dignity Village has shown that the tiny house movement is not just for hippies or hipsters.

Turning my attention back home to Vancouver with the lessons of Dignity Village floating through my head and an ounce of inspiration in my heart, I find myself asking if Oppenheimer’s camp-out style of civil disobedience could propel a small group of homeless to build a Village.

Without these acts of civil disobedience the homeless populations of any city could easily fade into the background, and the problem of homelessness might never be addressed. In the meantime I support the campers of Oppenheimer Park with their success in bringing attention to homelessness in Vancouver. For those who would also like to support the camp there are a few ways to do so:

Oppenheimer Update:

“Mayor Gregor Robertson held a press conference Thursday September 25 saying the city had affidavits supplied by police and fire officials depicting health and safety problems at the park. Notices informing campers that the park must be cleared by the end of Monday (September 29) were distributed.” Vancouver Sun, September 29, 2014 Z


Reconnect With Natureby Hendrik Beune

“Summer time, when the living’s easy…”

“I am sitting at the top of the bay, watching the tide roll away…”

These two tunes play in my head when I think of the summer season, and they are served with

side dishes of visual images of the many outdoor festivals that I have enjoyed throughout the years.

On many hot days, I took refuge in the forest where the respiration and transpiration of the trees elevated oxygen levels and cooled the ambient temperature. I recall the fragrance of the pines, enhanced by the moisture of a nearby waterfall, and am looking forward to tonight’s barbecue, which is best set on the beach, at a river’s edge or the shore of a lake.

These foods will satisfy my body and mind, even more so if I can look forward to sleeping under the stars and ponder on the splendor of the universe!

Though most of us can conjure up similar reminiscences, there are many who aren’t able to experience these wonderful aspects of summer. Occupied with the daily hustle and bustle of the city, many of us miss and forget about our true intimate connections with nature.

Perhaps summertime, then, is the best time for us to take a refresher course on the principles of sustainability, which may revive us spiritually and have a

lasting effect throughout the rest of the year. Is that really necessary, you may ask. Yes, it really is, I say! I am asking you to live in the moment with a more Zen-like awareness of your surroundings and what is really going on and important to all of us and the planet.

Let me introduce you to the three basic tenets of sustainability: planet, people and fair share. We cannot live sustainably if we wreck our planet, ignore the rest of our society or the basic human rights of other people (and other sentient creatures should be included as well), or live wastefully and take more than our fair share. If we all kept that in mind and tried our best not to break any of these three basic rules, we would live with less strife and pollution and thus be creating a more sustainable world and a just society around us. If you think about it and try to practice it, your life will become more functional and harmonious. Amazingly, you’ll find your attitude and priorities in life will change. You may soon be taking steps to become a permaculture designer and apprentice yourself!

“Fair share” is both good for the planet and good for the economy, and there’s a lot that individuals can do to support this principle. Please support the low-income binners at the daily street markets that occur on the sidewalks of the downtown core, offering recycled goods for sale. Rather than buying food at the lowest-price big-box supermarket, support local by visiting the farmers market. Grow your own vegetables at home or help out in a community garden project. A reminder to gardeners: don’t forget to plant your winter-garden soon, before the end of summer! Above all, make sure that you recycle and treat all creatures kindly and fairly! Z


Our Right To Nutritious Foodby Hendrik Beune

My previous article was an introduction to the three basic tenets of sustainability:

care for the planet (limit pollution, maintain resources), care for people (our community and others), fair share (don’t take more than you need, recycle, and don’t waste). I emphasized the importance of supporting local production and local markets as a means of stimulating the local economy and creating a healthy community. Our world is a place of abundance, but natural systems are being eroded very quickly by corporate unsustainable practices led by greed. Remediation, therefore, should be our first order of practice, which leads me to a discussion of markets and food security.

The most obvious remediation tactic is to revise our vision of “fair share.” In terms of food security, this means that everyone, regardless of income, has the right to access nutritious food produced in a sustainable way. In doing so, we also must remind ourselves that we are not the ultimate masters of the universe; we have to live in harmony with what nature provides.

Fortunately, many of us have become aware of how important sustainable food systems are, but because of increased inequality many of us have become alienated as well. My objective here is to convince my readership that supporting your local food producer is worthwhile—even though it may cost more, but

actually less in the long run—and that alternative economies exist to involve all of us, even those with very little money, in a healthy lifestyle.

Get to know the people in your community. Get to know your local producers at the farmers market and establish a relationship with them. Support “village” initiatives within the city and create community by attending community meetings and sharing healthy meals together. Promote community economic development as an antidote to gentrification, by shopping and hiring locally. Help to create community that is accessible to and involves everyone. Say hello to the people you meet and show some interest in their lives. Collaborate more and focus on the shared common good.

Historically, healthy mixed communities allow an opportunity for everyone to have a right to meaningful work (‘right livelyhood’). By this I mean that everyone should be able to do what they can within the community to the best of their ability. We have to promote inclusion to have healthy mixed societies.

At the farmers market, we have to pay more for food than at the supermarket because it is produced in a sustainable way.

Many people live below the poverty line due to no fault of their own and many people are able to live well above that level, not because they worked so much harder, but because of privilege. Ultimately, it’s important for everyone to share and become aware of how people from many walks of life can access sustainable food.

Having access to healthy, fresh foods makes a huge difference to health, but


sometimes it can be hard to access these nutritious necessities. The Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program provides lower-income families and seniors who are enrolled in cooking and skill-building programs with coupons each week to spend at their local farmers market. The program operates across B.C. and, as of this year, includes 47 communities. To learn more, check the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets website.

Other programs exist as well. The Cedar Cottage Food Network hosts six Mobile Produce Markets per month at different locations in East Vancouver. The markets provide fresh fruits and vegetables to community members at wholesale cost. The produce is local and organic wherever possible, and aims to reduce barriers to accessing fresh produce, such as limited income, physical mobility, and lack of transportation.

In most communities there are some organizations, essentially producer-consumer co-ops, that provide food baskets of locally produced foods through previously arranged purchasing agreements with local farmers. Such agreements, where the consumer purchases a share in the production of a farm are known as “Farm Links” or Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs); these arrangements can be made directly with a farmer or through a local producer-consumer co-op.

More and more people are turning their yards into tiny urban farms. At the same time, there is also more pressure being put on municipalities to plant fruit-bearing trees and berry bushes instead of ornamentals.

Urban fruit harvesting has become

another aspect of food solidarity and food security. Gleaning and garden assistance organizations are helping the hungry all over Canada. Local organizations, such as the Vancouver and Richmond Fruit Tree Projects, specialize to help harvest and distribute surplus ripe fruits.

Many urban farms such as the Hastings Urban Farm provide opportunities for the low-income community to become involved in the operation of the farm and they will also provide produce on a “pay-what-you-can” sliding scale basis. Bartering is another way to obtain fresh produce without using money and you will see this system in action at many farmers markets, where vendors will barter their product in exchange for another.

As the farmers markets are about to close for the day, perishables are often offered to the public for a greatly reduced price, for example two loaves of bread, or two bunches of flowers for the price of one. It’s common practice, so don’t be afraid to ask for and take advantage of these bargains! Some people have approached their local grocery stores to give them their surplus or soon-to-expire products for use in community kitchens or for distribution to the needy. One such organization, which operates out of my building at Woodward’s, is called the ‘Poor People’s Resource Society’ (PPRS).

If you know the way, there is no reason why anyone should be without good, nutritious food. To enhance food security, I recommend that you do what you can at the individual level and support programs that are made available through the insight of people to reduce waste and enhance equality of food access. Z


Food Not BombsOur American Friends by Stan Shaffer

At a Zine meeting in mid-July, two inspiring young activists from Indianapolis, Indiana, Zander

and Helen, joined our group. They had flown to Vancouver, retrieved their bikes, and spent a week meeting people of kindred spirit. Then they’re riding slowly to Portland and on the way primarily visiting co-operative and intentional living groups in Bellingham and Seattle.

After only one week, they were impressively well informed about housing and food issues in Vancouver and had already visited the Oppenheimer protest, bringing bread and greens. They met the main organizers and listened to media interviews. Helen was spot on when she stated, “people in Oppenheimer just want a home.” During his exploration of Vancouver, Zander noted “lots of produce in dumpsters in the Lakewood/Commercial Drive area.”

Although food security is a key issue for them, collective housing and cooperative living are vital interests because of

their lives in Indianapolis. They told us that Indianapolis used to be a thriving industrial city that has seen better days since its industrial core moved off shore, creating a “rust belt” shell of its former self. While not as badly deteriorated as Detroit, it nevertheless has plenty of poverty and related social problems. Ironically, its main industry now is convention and sports tourism, partly because the downtown core has many museums and monuments, which creates plenty of minimum paying, part-time service sector jobs to support the tourists.

“How many paychecks and a credit card are you away from homelessness?”

What environmental, family and personal factors influence young people to seek a life of communal living and social justice?For Helen, who is “passionate about family background,” it was growing up poor with parents who travelled around the US mid-West looking for work and living informally, coop style. She knows firsthand that there’s “security in food.” Her parents became obese because of their dependence on processed food, and her father was

Helen Zander Donna Janice Kim Stan Harreson Hendrick


Zander Update: He reports that “Bellingham’s Food Not Bombs was a very different scene, conjoined to the ‘longest running peace vigil’ in the U.S….I enjoyed how Bellingham’s FMB bridged the gap between folks facing serious struggles in their own daily lives with the macro-issues the peace vigil was bringing to light. I think they brought two distinct audiences together and created great dialogue that way.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military programs than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Martin Luther King, Jr

http://www.foodnotbombs.net

The Indianapolis group: http://www.facebook.com/fnbindy

recently hospitalized. Fortunately she loved fruits and vegetables and is a rigorous vegetarian. Her Food Not Bombs group in Indianapolis feeds 160 people, fundraises, and is connected to a worker’s justice center movement. Although her parents had no money for college, she’s currently finishing a degree in fine arts specializing in bronze sculpture at the Herron School of Art and Design.

Zander (short for Alexander), who’s astute and articulate, was wearing a tee-shirt with a “Food Not Bombs” logo and is a Community Outreach Intern for the group. He has wide knowledge about US housing legislation and food justice. His father was an environmentalist and labour union representative who lost his job after protesting labour cutbacks in Wisconsin. Zander quoted someone at the Oppenheimer protest who asked, “How many paychecks and a credit card are you away from homelessness?” Although he ignores electoral politics in his state because of a “super-majority”— meaning the government is controlled by Republicans—he’s a leader in many Food Not Bombs projects. Zander has almost finished his degree in mechanical engineering.

Sometimes we Canadians have a jaundiced view of our Southern neighbours, believing many are bullheaded capitalists mainly concerned with personal financial well-being. Well, not so fast. Helen, Zander and the activist group they represent are committed to creating personal lives with a communal social purpose. More power to them!

Z


Recipe: Spanish Omeletteby Maria Lopez

Ingredients

4 large potatoes6 eggs1 onion¼ tsp salt¼ tsp pepperCooking oil (not olive)Optional: thin slices of salami and peppers

Directions

1. Wash potatoes and cut in equal small sizes, about 1” bits

2. Cut onion very fine.

3. Put small amount of oil in pan and sauté onions.

4. Add potatoes to onion and continue to sauté.

5. Beat the eggs and add to onion and potatoes & cook on low-medium.

6. Flip omelette and put a flat plate over pan.

7. Cut omelette into slices and serve.

Enjoy. Serves 4-6

Planting Seedspoem by Janice Jacinto

planting seeds is a

reflection of a gardener’s soul

their roots, constant like the stars

wildly inter-weaved, we all are,

shining in between

the smiling irises.

savoring the taste of sun,

the last paint of rain.

flowers we are,

altogether, day and night,

planting what we feel

to the world.

life is summer...

growing beneath and above.

my dear, remember

to watch the sunrise

I promise you won’t

close your eyes.

petals that blow upon the wind,

kissing the midsummer sky.

for we are, and still are

flowers from concrete.

Z

Z


Healing Hungry Souls

The Strathcona Community Centre Food Security Programby Stan Shaffer

Strathcona is a diverse and vibrant community with many of its residents living in poverty and/

or who are recent immigrants. The Strathcona Community Centre (SCC) Food Security Program headed by Lauren Brown and Lorraine Holubowich contains an impressive diversity of interconnected services to help meet the food needs of the neighbourhood. These include breakfast, Backpack (weekend food access support for families), cooking fun for families, Backpack community kitchen, healthy child/youth snack, youth Friday night cooking, farm and farmer’s market trips, and more.

Lauren is the SCC food security coordinator and joined in April 2013 after working for the First Nations Health Authority as a health planner and gaining experience with nutrition and food security. She moved to SCC because she wanted more hands on rapport with people and the opportunity to work within community-based programs. She has found her new job extremely rewarding.

Lorraine is in charge of the Backpack program, having previously worked in an AIDS transition house where she provided nutrition and medication support. She has an outdoor recreation

diploma from Capilano College and has training in health care and nutrition. Four years ago she inquired about volunteering and was subsequently awarded a vacant staff position! Originally working only two hours a week, Lorraine’s position and role has grown throughout the years.

The Backpack program provides a variety of services including dignified access to food for local families over the weekends when some of the regular food services are suspended. Importantly, the program has taken steps to transition from the charity food model, where people are passive recipients of already packaged food, toward a more active participation model where people have the opportunity to mingle and choose their own food items in a market-like environment. Participants can also become involved in all aspects of food production (farm trips), cooking, and communal sharing. This includes trips to farms and farmers markets, shopping and community kitchens, as well as joining the programs’ volunteer positions to encourage families to become more involved. Since the DTES is also home to many recent immigrants, food shopping practice helps people learn real world survival skills.


Lorraine organizes trips with parents and kids to farms and markets. Farm trips to Surrey engage participants in a variety of agricultural experiences as well as picking blueberries! A summertime community kitchen program is available for adults, and child-oriented food activities are available for whose who can’t leave their children at home.

Fundraising is an ongoing part of sustaining the SCC food programs as they do not receive any ongoing core funding. Lauren engages in fundraising but it is mainly Ron Suzuki, a Parks Board employee, who is revered for his dedication and networking ability to raise funds for the programs. He can often be found at the community centre seven days a week in addition to events around the city in support of the SCC.

Lorraine says programs that encourage first-hand experience demonstrate that people have gifts. They become visible to themselves and others, grow in dignity, offer their special talents, and build friendships. Akina, for example, who was a volunteer in the program, now attends a UBC social work program and has returned for a summer of service.

To develop skills and confidence, residents have access to many training programs, such as cooking, food safe, kitchen first aid and fire safety, and leadership, all of which encourage

them to assume more active roles. These training programs are available to volunteers and community kitchen participants.

Lorraine uses the word “sparks” to describe ways in which people and groups become energized. Here’s three stories which illustrate how all these programs and communal supports help to produce confident, independent, contributing citizens:

A new immigrant moved to Canada and joined the community kitchen.

She accessed the leadership training and is now in the process of starting her own community kitchen.

Awoman was laid off and joined the community kitchen program. She

accessed a variety of training workshops from food safe to leadership. Now she is employed at SCC in capacities that utilize her cooking and food safe skills.

Lance returned to his original family home in Strathcona and has been

involved with the community kitchen open house planning committee and two community kitchen groups. He also initiated a Friday casual supper group at his own home for about six people, most of whom he has met through his involvement at the SCC. Lance is also spear-heading an ambitious project called “We Are All One Community Fair” which will bring together parents, special needs children, and resource groups to an event in October, which is Inclusion Month.

It was a pleasure for me to meet these knowledgeable and dedicated leaders who galvanize DTES individuals, parents, and children to live healthier, more productive, and fulfilled lives. Z


Nuba Lessonsby Marco Torres

Ever since I started working at Nuba Restaurant, not only my eating habits have drastically changed,

but also my lifestyle. Nuba is committed to healthy food, the environment and the community. Nuba has not only taught me the benefits of consuming local ingredients, recycling and composting, but also about how important it is to help and participate in the community we live in.

Considered one of the healthiest in the world, Lebanese cuisine includes an abundance of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and strives for the consumption of non-medicated and hormone free meats.

Nuba follows these principles and works closely with local producers to offer the freshest ingredients and first quality meat, instead of importing out of season produce from far away. An example of this is the consumption of quinoa; after seeing the growing global interest in Peruvian Quinoa and how the prices went up to the point of making it no longer affordable for the people farming it, Nuba decided to support Canadian farmers and to start consuming only homegrown and GMO free quinoa and to step away from this unintentional poverty and hunger cycle.

I have learned that sustainability is the key to making a difference on issues such as climate change and food waste and that habits like composting

and recycling are important ways to contribute to the environment. Adopting these habits and practising them at home is a simple and effective way to reduce our ecological footprint, and spreading the word is the way to promote and share the same values with our customers. By sponsoring cultural events such as the Dragon Boat Festival and donating to different fundraisers and charities such as the Cancer Society, Nuba promotes community engagement as a win-win situation for the restaurant and its customers.

Finally, from our customers I have adopted positive practices like exercising more and being careful with my diet; it is common to see plenty of people carrying their yoga mats when entering the restaurant or locking their bikes before doing so. It is also common to get a variety of different dietary restrictions that clients request when ordering, and Nuba is sensitive about it when cooking a meal, either vegetarian, vegan or gluten and/or dairy free.

Located at the corner of Cambie and Hastings street, Nuba restaurant is an amazingly healthy place to eat and also an awesome place to work where staff, suppliers and customers are treated fairly. Z


Frugal Organic EatingBy Harreson Sito

Healthy, nutritious, affordable food presented with dignity - what does that mean? To

different people, those words mean different things. To a freeganist who reclaims discarded food out of trash bins, that could mean delicious home-cooked meals from that reclaimed food served to their housemates or to a community of people in need. To a person with an abundance of financial resources, it could mean regularly eating out at posh restaurants. In this article, the question leads me to a friend, Maria Foster, who, as a teacher/counsellor, has some financial resources but chooses to eat frugally.

For Maria, eating frugally means regularly spending less than $200 a month on healthy nutritious food of her choice. She does this for two reasons: out of necessity and out of curiosity. Back in 2009, she had two car accidents which dramatically affected her health and her ability to produce income. Subsequently she experienced a significant reduction in income. The timing of accidents couldn’t have happened at a worse time – she had just signed the papers to take ownership of a house and now had a large mortgage looming over her head. The question arose for her: how to keep the house and still have healthy food on a highly restricted budget?

Fortunately her health and income-making ability has greatly improved since then, so life is not so stressful.

However, due to her pre-existing curiosity to explore living more simply, she continues to eat and live frugally. For Maria, healthy means eating organically grown food. I visited Maria at her home and learned some of her steps on how to spend less than $200 a month on food and still eat organically grown food of her choice.

Step 1. Grow Your Own Food

Although there was an existing garden on her property, it had not been tended recently, so the garden was full of unknown and inedible plants. Maria put the soil on Craigslist for people to come and take away, so that she could then get high quality, gardenable soil trucked in.

Maria states that “If I couldn’t eat it, I wouldn’t plant it.” She started with planting garlic since it was the most expensive food item on her shopping list. She originally planted garlic in the spring, but then discovered that if she planted garlic in the fall, she got a far bigger bulb and healthier plant. “Garlic


is very easy to grow.” By dedicating a third of her garden to growing garlic and eliminating the costly need to buy it, the reduction in her food bill felt particularly satisfying.

As a novice gardener, Maria looked to her Italian neighbours who have been growing their own food for more than thirty years. When they planted, she planted. So far, she has planted potatoes, leeks, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, carrots, beets, sunchokes, beans, lettuce, spinach. In the summer, she plants lettuce every couple weeks so that she will have a constant supply. For some unknown reason, the carrots and beets didn’t do as well as she would have liked, but she’s going to try growing beets again.

Spearmint, mint, basil get planted in their own containers. Maria also plants nasturiums, which are beautiful and the flowers are edible. She will start them out in the vegetable garden but then transplant them into their own planters later.

Step 2. Budget, Compare, and Shop Wisely

When Maria started with budgeting, she compiled a spreadsheet of various items and prices at different stores. Through experience, she has three main stores where she buys her food: Pro-Organics, Superstore, and Costco.

On Saturdays, from 8am to 2pm, Pro-Organics has a public market at 4535 Still Creek Avenue, Burnaby. Maria will go through the manager’s specials list and find the best values for what she is looking for. Normally, she will find bulk rice, bananas, oranges, grapefruits.

At Superstore, she picks up organic lentils, tofu, ochra. At Costco, she will

buy coconut oil, chia seeds, and hemp. At Costco, she’s aware to spend focused time there and not get distracted by impulse buying - have a defined shopping list, stick to it, don’t go in when you’re hungry, and zip in and out quickly.

In the summer, she will buy organic produce such as apricots, peaches, plums from the Okanogan and can them.

Maria doesn’t buy meat very often, buys fish once or twice during the non-summer months and four times a month during the summer. “Cheese is very expensive and I don’t buy cheese that often.” Most of her meals are vegetarian. She does buy eggs, chia seeds, lentils for protein. Dahls, kicharis, stirfries, soups, stewy type meals, Vietnamese rice wraps, salads are common meals that Maria eats.

Step 3. Use As Much Of The Food As You Can

Maria says that when the garlic plant grows, there are surplus offshoots called

Maria’s supply of garlic scapes


scapes, that are cut off because they only take away valuable growing energy from the garlic bulb. However, Maria saves these garlic scapes, chops them up, and uses them for stirfries and soups.

She also saves and freezes the peels of oranges and lemons. She will use the orange peels to make her own house cleaner, adding orange essential oil when she needs extra cleaning power in the kitchen or tea-tree essential oil for cleaning the bathroom. She will also use the rinds for a refreshing ice tea or lemonade.

Maria saves vegetable remnants that aren’t going into the compost in the freezer, and when she has enough vegetable material, she puts them in a pressure cooker and makes a soup stock.

Maria re-purposes and recycles so much of what she brings into the house, that at the end of the month, the city only gets a small bag of garbage that will go into the landfill.

Step 4. Make Your Own

Here, Maria shines in making her own

healthy affordable food - kefir, kimchee, yoghurt, and protein bars.

Maria will pick strawberries, can them, and also give them away as gifts. Because she uses a special pectin, she doesn’t have to use as much sugar so her jams end up more affordable and healthier

than the commercial jams.

Step 5. Eat As Close To Natural As Possible

“My biggest focus would be to try to eat food as close as possible to its natural state.” For example, rather than buy mango or apple juice, Maria would just eat the mango or the apple. “Processing adds chemicals.”

More and more research is showing us that a diet that promotes health and longevity is one that consists of 40 to 60% whole grains, 10 to 20% high quality protein, and 30 to 50% fresh fruits and vegetables. Maria’s healthy, affordable, and nutritious diet falls within that range, proof that affordable and healthy are not exclusive of each other. Z

Kimchee (in hands) and kefir (on table)


&

Presents

Is it difficult to get enough food to eat in a day?

Is food available as often as you’d like? Are you satisfied with the quality and quantity of food you get?

What does the word “meal” mean to you? How do you decide where to eat?

Come share your feedback on these questions and more in fun and engaging ways!

But we ARE vegetables! Coming November 14,

2014

DTES Neighbourhood House - 573 East Hastings Street (at Princess)

*featuring the DTES Kitchen Tables Nutritional Outreach Team


DTES NH Upcoming Eventsby Carol White

Annual General Meeting & MembershipsThe Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTES NH) will hold an AGM later this year. Now is a great time to renew your membership and help support our activities and our society. Membership is $1.00 but cost will be waived if requested. For more information email [email protected] or drop in Monday or Wednesday, 10 am-2pm, to pick up a membership form.

DTES NH / THE EASTSIDE CULTURE CRAWLThursday, November 20th - Saturday, November 22nd, 2014

The DTES Neighbourhood House will have an art display for these three days, including children’s art. Bring the family and enjoy free appetizers.

One Community FestivalThe DTES NH is the Hub of the neighborhood. One Community Festival is very honored to have the most workshops being held at the festival at the DTES-NH for the month of October.1) MONDAY OCT 6th, 1:30 pm - “WAMMS” workshop put on by the Learning Disabilities Association of Vancouver (“WAMMS”--Walk a Mile in My Shoes). Throughout the workshop participants will explore learning disabilities such as: Dysgraphia, Dyslexia, Dysnomia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, Visual-Perception, and others. This interactive seminar will give participants a true sense of what it feels like to live with Learning Disabilities in today’s world and will identify symptoms and strategies for each.

2) THURSDAY OCT 9th, 6 pm - COMMUNITY INFORMATION TABLE @ RayCam Cooperative Centre - BFF Workshop

3) MONDAY OCT 13th, 6:30 pm - I AM A DAD is a co-workshop put on for fathers by Fathers for Thought group and Strathcona Parents Support Group with Special Needs. Through storytelling, role playing and the use of psychodrama, a participant-based interactive workshop will explore men’s roles as fathers, the challenges they face, and the choices they make. This workshop features the work of Gabriela Reynoso Cerecero, a professional actress whose work with psychodrama complements her background in psychology. With the help of Lance Lim, a single dad with a child with autism, the use of psychodrama enables participants to explore options without judgment.

4) FRIDAY OCT 17th, 6–9 pm - FREE SMOOTHIES at Strathcona Community Center, 601 Keefer St.


Acknowledgments

The RTF Zine would not be possible without financial supporters who endorse our message and who would like to help us get the message out to more people. We would like to thank the following for their support and generous financial help:

• the Shaffer Family• Vancity Chinatown branch• Paul Taylor at Gordon Neighbour House, Vancouver• Strathcona/Vancouver Foundation Neighbourhood Small Grants Program• Carol White and the DTES NH Staffers

Be Part of Zine FamilyInterested in contributing ideas, articles, poems, illustrations, artwork, or photographs to the RTF Zine? As a community partner, we are deeply interested to hear from you and what you feel is important for the DTES. Find us online at http://rtfzine.org or let us know who you are at [email protected]

The Right to Food Zine relies on generous donations from the community to produce each issue. If you like what we are doing and want to show your support by making a donation to the zine, please visit our website http://rtfzine.org

photo by Harreson Sito

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